06 April, 2017

Russia vs West on the latest lethal gas attack in Idlib-Syria

Representatives
from Russia and Western countries have been engaged in a war of words
during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) concerning a recent suspected chemical attack in Syria.

They clashed
on Wednesday over a resolution drafted by Britain, France and the US,
which condemned the suspected toxic gas attack in Syria’s
northwestern Idlib province and demanded a full investigation into
Tuesday’s incident.

Russia’s
Deputy Ambassador to the UN Vladimir Safronkov said such attacks were
provoked by ex-US President Barack Obama's threat of military action
if a "red line" was crossed and chemical weapons were used
in Syria.

"That
decision served as a starting point for future provocations by
terrorists and extremist structures with the use of chemical weapons,
they sought to discredit… Damascus… and to create a pretext for
the use of military force against a sovereign state," he
said.

Five
permanent members of the Security Council, among them Russia, have
the power to veto UN resolutions that need nine positive votes and no
vetoes to pass.

Russia has
on several occasions blocked anti-Damascus motions at the Security
Council.

"We
do not believe it is expedient to pass a resolution on the chemical
weapons attack in its present form," Russia's Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted by the Interfax news
agency as saying on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in
her comments, Zakharova questioned the data on which the latest
proposed UN resolution was based, stressing that the motion would
exacerbate tensions in Syria and the region.

“Unfortunately,
based on totally fake information, the United States, France and
Great Britain have once again planted - one cannot put it any other
way - into the UN Security Council a draft resolution which has a
completely anti-Syrian character," she said.

The motion
"pre-empts the results of an investigation and just
immediately designates the guilty,” she added.

The
suspected chemical attack targeted the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib
province on Tuesday. It was followed by alleged air raids that hit a
hospital where victims of the assault were being treated.

The
so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at
72.

Syria’s
opposition accused the Syrian government of bombing Khan Shaykhun
with chemical munitions.

However, the
Syrian army categorically denied the accusation about its involvement
in the deadly attack, emphasizing that it "has never used
them, anytime, anywhere, and will not do so in the future."

Russia’s
Defense Ministry said the deaths were caused when a Syrian air strike
struck a "terrorist warehouse" used for making bombs
containing "toxic substances.”